The disclosure concerns an applicator for applying a coating agent (e.g. thick matter, in particular adhesive or sealant) to a component (e.g. motor vehicle body component), in particular for applying a thick matter bead to a component surface. Furthermore, the disclosure concerns a replacement part for such an applicator and a corresponding method of operation for it.
It is known from the state of the art to apply a so-called adhesive bead to a component surface with an applicator. An application robot guides the applicator along a specified path over the component surface. During this movement, the applicator releases the adhesive from a nozzle onto the component surface, so that the adhesive forms the adhesive bead on the component surface. The known nozzles for such an applicator usually consist of a tube which narrows in the direction of flow and has a V-shaped nozzle slot at its end in the wall of the tube. The nozzle is guided over the surface of the component when the adhesive bead is applied, whereby the nozzle is aligned at an angle to the surface of the component. A similar applicator is also known from DE 199 38 328 A1.
A disadvantage of these known applicators is the fact that the nozzle geometry is fixed and can only be changed by replacing the respective nozzle. However, a nozzle change requires a certain period of time, which is problematic in a thick matter system for serial coating (e.g. adhesive coating) of motor vehicle body components due to the required time expenditure, since the nozzle change can limit the achievable cycle time during painting.